First Gaming Build v1.0

Jsmooth1992 · Jan 9, 2014

Hey guys!
Was wondering if I could get some advice on this build. I've nailed down each component down to my final choices, so now all I need is just some comments on the compatibility of the rig. The total cost ran higher than I thought it would, so if you see any parts that are unnecessary let me know where I can be saving money!

Some clarifying info:
1. I want to be playing titles like BF4, Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite on the highest settings at 1920x1080. Is the 290 overkill? I may be moving into a multi-screen set up down the track or upgrading to a singler 1440p monitor when they become more mainstream. So I was thinking.....290, or 280x now and then another 280x in crossfire a couple years down the track?

2. Has anyone come across the dilemma of RAM that runs at 1.65V? Supposedly this puts it above the recommended level by Intel, so I'm limited to RAM that runs at 1.5V (with a few of my RAM options being 1.65V) Anyone care to shed some light on this?

3. I am wanting to do a mild overclock of the 4670K to roughly 4-4.2 GHz. Is the Evo too much for such a mild overclock? And for anyone reading who has one, how's the clearance with your RAM and case?

The Build (sorry for the muddled order! That's just the order I added items into my cart online (will be ordering from PC Case Gear, Melbourne Australia) so I copied and pasted. All prices are in AUD.):
GPU XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Double Dissipation (or any non-reference 290 that looks good in the next 2-3 weeks) $589.00
SSD Samsung 840 EVO Series 120GB SSD $109.00
HDD Western Digital WD Black 1TB WD1003FZEX $99.00
CPU cooler CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler $45.00
Case NZXT Phantom 410 Mid Tower Case $129.00
CPU Intel Core i5 4670K $279.00
Motherboard MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming Motherboard $259.00
RAM G.Skill Ares F3-1866C9D-8GAB 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 $109.00
Optical Some OEM BR drive by Pioneer, LG etc ~$50-60
PSU Antec High Current Gamer 750W Modular HCG-750M $159.00
Total Cost - $1850AUD

Thanks for reading guys! Appreciate all comments and pointers.

luckiest charm · Jan 9, 2014

I think you can save some money on PSU. Get CX 600 or CX 700 instead (Bronze Certified).

That card still can not max out Crysis 3 since its not possible to play that game on its highest settings properly with any setup you can imagine.

GTX Titan X 4 + 32 GB 2133 MHz + i7 3970X Extreme Edition = 53 FPS

You can easily max out Bioshock Infinite and probably Battlefield 4 with that setup though but its overkill.

If you want to save costs, I would recommend getting a GTX 770 instead of 290 and later on adding another one should the needs arise as the card is much cheaper ($410) and can also max out those games except Crysis 3.

No you can not reach 4.2 GHz without EVO since Haswell CPUs run hotter than Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge.

Wait, instead of pointing things out one by one, I will give my opinion on a separate build. Have a look at it and compare it to yours -

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.00 @ PCCaseGear)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake CLP0534 22.4 CFM CPU Cooler ($32.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($115.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($439.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 850W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($185.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($25.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1487.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-09 19:16 EST+1100)

As I said, GTX 770 is enough for your needs, except Crysis which can not be maxed out by any way. For any other game, R9 290 is overkill for that display.

Good luck!

Specops125 · Jan 9, 2014

I could offer something on saving money. Your motherboard may be better than needed. It can support a three way CrossFire and has many ports. luckiest charm offers an example of good board that is cheaper because it will do two way CrossFire while maintaining, for example, the same number of rear USB 3.0 ports.

You could even save even more money by going really bare bones with the motherboard if you do not need a lot of ports, and are ok with only being able to effectively mount one graphics card, i.e. never getting two graphics cards and going CrossFire (because there are not enough PCIe x16 slots, or they work too slowly to be worth it such as at PCIe 2.0 at x4 speeds).

For comparison of prices in US dollars, here is the motherboard you have listed, the MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming LGA 1150.

Here is the board luckiest charm listed, the ASRock Z87 Extreme3 LGA 1150, it supports two way CrossFire.

Here is a board from Asus that support two way CrossFire, the ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150.

This MSI board is an example of CrossFire being technically possible but a bad idea because it would run at PCIe 2.0 x4 speeds, the MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate LGA 1150. If you choose this or something similar, it should be because you will never intend to CrossFire.

Basically, if you go with another mobo and want to leave the door to CrossFire open make sure for the PCIe 3.0 slots you are seeing are at least 2 (x16 or dual x8) as per the specifications. This means a single card in one of those slots would have x16 bandwidth available, while if you put in two, it would split the x16 between them resulting in x8 for each.

luckiest charm · Jan 9, 2014

Yeah the difference is in if he would ever want to SLI / CrossFire or not.

If he would never crossfire then Radeon R9 290 makes sense considering future upgrades in display he is talking about. Then
MSI Z87 - G41 is the best choice here due to a single PCIE 3.0 x16 slot and lower cost.

If he is leaning towards GTX 770 for the moment to save costs (and to get value for money) and may want to SLI down to road should the needs arise after sometime, his best bet is ASRock Extreme3.

P.S - I just checked both ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 and MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate LGA 1150 are not available on PCCaseGear (The specific website from which he is buying the system). But if single card is his choice then I am also inclined towards MSI even if he has to opt for some other site to buy it.

Jsmooth1992 · Jan 11, 2014

luckiest charm :

I think you can save some money on PSU. Get CX 600 or CX 700 instead (Bronze Certified).

That card still can not max out Crysis 3 since its not possible to play that game on its highest settings properly with any setup you can imagine.

GTX Titan X 4 + 32 GB 2133 MHz + i7 3970X Extreme Edition = 53 FPS

You can easily max out Bioshock Infinite and probably Battlefield 4 with that setup though but its overkill.

If you want to save costs, I would recommend getting a GTX 770 instead of 290 and later on adding another one should the needs arise as the card is much cheaper ($410) and can also max out those games except Crysis 3.

No you can not reach 4.2 GHz without EVO since Haswell CPUs run hotter than Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge.

Wait, instead of pointing things out one by one, I will give my opinion on a separate build. Have a look at it and compare it to yours -

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.00 @ PCCaseGear)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake CLP0534 22.4 CFM CPU Cooler ($32.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($115.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($439.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 850W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($185.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($25.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1487.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-09 19:16 EST+1100)

As I said, GTX 770 is enough for your needs, except Crysis which can not be maxed out by any way. For any other game, R9 290 is overkill for that display.

Good luck!

hey luckeist Charm!

Thanks for the pointers! will check out some of the suggestions you made.

Jsmooth1992 · Jan 11, 2014

Specops125 :

I could offer something on saving money. Your motherboard may be better than needed. It can support a three way CrossFire and has many ports. luckiest charm offers an example of good board that is cheaper because it will do two way CrossFire while maintaining, for example, the same number of rear USB 3.0 ports.

You could even save even more money by going really bare bones with the motherboard if you do not need a lot of ports, and are ok with only being able to effectively mount one graphics card, i.e. never getting two graphics cards and going CrossFire (because there are not enough PCIe x16 slots, or they work too slowly to be worth it such as at PCIe 2.0 at x4 speeds).

For comparison of prices in US dollars, here is the motherboard you have listed, the MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming LGA 1150.

Here is the board luckiest charm listed, the ASRock Z87 Extreme3 LGA 1150, it supports two way CrossFire.

Here is a board from Asus that support two way CrossFire, the ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150.

This MSI board is an example of CrossFire being technically possible but a bad idea because it would run at PCIe 2.0 x4 speeds, the MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate LGA 1150. If you choose this or something similar, it should be because you will never intend to CrossFire.

Basically, if you go with another mobo and want to leave the door to CrossFire open make sure for the PCIe 3.0 slots you are seeing are at least 2 (x16 or dual x8) as per the specifications. This means a single card in one of those slots would have x16 bandwidth available, while if you put in two, it would split the x16 between them resulting in x8 for each.

Hey Specops,

Yeah I was thinking the motherboard may be a bit overkill haha. Might check out some of the ASrock ones. Yeah, I'll keep that in mind. i probably will end up crossfiring down the track, maybe in a few years time.

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